we learn the most when we teach…

Our concept of education is broad enough to include formal learning in academia and hands-on training within the artistic community. At The Involved Stage, education is communication aimed at sharing all sorts of skills, including how to do things with the body, but also with ideas and non-bodily materials. This is achieved through interactions that allow us to learn new abilities while integrating old ones at the same time.

INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS

On the one hand, The Involved Stage cooperates with higher education institutions to develop and deliver content that eventually feeds into undergraduate courses. This is an important aspect of our practice. After all, our activity as a group began in the context of the university classroom. On the other hand, fostering spaces for sharing know-how is equally relevant for us. There, we promote the exchange of transferable skills among artists and enthusiasts, by means of workshops and similar activities.

Both lines of educational work influence, and are influenced by, our creative and research practices. Actually, it is the interplay of the three which sets our pedagogical agenda. We do not teach people in the usual sense of the term. We take the opportunity to learn from our fellow participants and deploy our newfound skills for purposes of artistic creation and research.

The Keystone seminar at Webster Leiden: Art and social engagement

The Keystone Seminar is the culminating point of the Global Citizen Programme offered at Webster University worldwide. A number of thematic options are available for the students to explore matters of social relevance from a critical perspective. Art and social engagement is one of such themes.

The course Art and social engagement: How do the arts impact the world? has been associated to The Involved Stage since Fall 2015. In this incarnation of the Keystone Seminar, the students are encouraged to explore the political side of art through theoretical reflection and hands-on creative experience.

The first part of the course revolves around theories about art and social engagement (Bertolt Brecht, Augusto Boal, Chantal Mouffe and Alain Badiou among others), while the second concentrates on the production of a performance. This is done by the students in light of such theories and based on the skills they have acquired during their studies. In so doing, the participants address social tensions by aesthetic means.